“What are you, then?”
“P-Pure!”
Gus breathed a deliberately drawn-out sigh. Damn him.
“You don’t take after Blood here, I see. Before he met Mary, Blood had acquired a huge reputation for this sort of thing.”
“So Blood was a popular guy.”
“His love affairs make for quite the topic, you know.”
“Okay, stop right there. Hearing about my dad’s love life makes me feel uncomfortable.”
The worst part was that unlike with the stories I heard from Bee, Gus had actually been there, so I didn’t have any get-outs like “but it’s just a legend” to hide behind. That said, I did think Blood having a reputation where women were concerned sounded a lot like him.
“He knew exactly where to draw the line. He’d only ever lay hands on women who knew what they were getting into. When it came to starry-eyed maidens, he would simply show off a bit and give them a glimpse of a beautiful dream before going on his way. You should follow in his footsteps.”
“I said I don’t want to hear about my dad’s love life! God!”
Gus cackled. “How fun it is to irritate other people.”
“You’re supposed to be a sage, an intellectual! How is it that this conversation has been nothing but money, women, and ways to irritate your grandson?!”
Our verbal spar paused there for a moment, and we stared at each other. We both snickered, and then broke into full-blown laughter. Two years had passed, but Gus was still Gus. Somehow I felt so happy for that, and Gus probably thought the same.
“On a more serious note, is there really no one? There’s normally something when you go adventuring. You know, like rescuing a strong-minded woman captured by bandits, or gallantly saving a merchant adventurer who lost her bodyguards, or recruiting a dependable swordswoman, or protecting a polite and proper lady of a fallen kingdom. Any number of things. Why are you giving me that look?”
“All of those were guys.”
He laughed his head off.
As I was talking with Gus, all the others caught up, presumably after tying the boat somewhere or having found a place to dock it. I waved to them from the top of the hill and beckoned them to the temple. I’d already told everyone about Gus, so Menel, Al, and Reystov just looked at him with faces that said, “Ah, so this must be him.”
Ghelreis, however, changed color upon seeing him.
Gus inclined his head quizzically. “How odd. Have we met somewhere?”
“I was a wounded soldier who escaped those mountains two hundred years ago, traveling sorcerer. I would never have guessed that you were the infamous Wandering Sage…”
“Ahh, that callow soldier. You’ve aged.”
“Indeed I have. I never expected the day to come when I would be able to see you again…”
I asked them to explain.
Just before the attack on the High King, Blood, Mary, and Gus had come across a group of refugees from the Iron Country. They were suffering from injury and disease and gave no names in particular. Mary gave them the best treatment she could, and Gus and Blood assisted her.
Ghelreis and Grendir, who due to being young and inexperienced had not been permitted to be part of the king’s battle array, were heading north protecting the refugees at that time. They told me that Mary healed the wounds the refugees had suffered during repeated encounters with demons. It sounded very much like her. I could see Mary’s face in my mind.
“It is thanks to you and your group that I have lived to this ripe old age and now look up to a new lord and indeed am able to travel alongside your grandson, Sir William.”
“Mm. A marvelous coincidence. How wonderful.”
“Even in the face of a dragon, I will show no fear. I swear it…”
“Hm?”
“Hm?”
Ghelreis and Gus sounded equally confused. There was a pause.
“Dragon?” Gus prompted.
Ghelreis nodded. Gus started shaking.
“Dragon?” Gus slowly turned his head towards me.
“Yeah.” I nodded.
“Why wasn’t that the first thing you said?!”
“Because you were all ‘money, money, money’ as soon as we started talking!”
It immediately turned into an argument.
“A dragon. A dragon?! You aren’t talking about Calamity’s Sickle that’s been roaring recently?!”
“That’s him! Valacirca!”
“You dunce, you’ll be killed!”
“I still have to do it!”
“You’re telling me the only way is to fight? After considering all the other ways?!”
“What other ways are there?!”
“You idiot!” Gus shouted, flinging a spectral arm into the air. “Didn’t you even consider persuasion?!”
It was an idea that no one had even imagined.
“P-Persuasion…?”
“The gods hired Valacirca. That means there’s a chance that this can be resolved with money and objects.”
Everyone looked flabbergasted.
“You know, this kind of idea feels very familiar to me.”
“That’s funny, Menel, sir, it does to me as well.”
“Mm.”
“Yeah…”
They all nodded with deep expressions. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I was entirely content with being put in the same box as Gus, but I managed to hold back.
“Granted, I imagine it would be difficult to cajole an evil dragon that has lived since the time of the gods. But there is no need to restrict your solutions to just one. Always keep your thinking flexible. Avoid becoming blinkered.”
“Okay.”
It was a very Gus-like way of thinking, and a Gus-like way of speaking, too. I felt like I’d gone back in time, and it made me feel happier than I could explain.
Gus cleared his throat. “I apologize for that unsightly argument.” He smiled at everyone. “Friends of my grandson: A warm welcome to you all.”
I could tell from his voice that he was in the best of moods.
Copyright
The Faraway Paladin 3 Primus: The Lord of the Rust Mountains by Kanata Yanagino
Translated by James Rushton
Edited by Sasha McGlynn
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 Kanata Yanagino
Illustrations Copyright © 2016 Kususaga Rin
Cover illustration by Kususaga Rin
All rights reserved.
Original Japanese edition published in 2016 by OVERLAP, Inc.
This English edition is published by arrangement with OVERLAP, Inc., Tokyo
English translation © 2017 J-Novel Club LLC
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.
J-Novel Club LLC
j-novel.club
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
Ebook edition 1.0: July 2017